


Things Are Not As They Appear

by MoonyKat



Category: Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types
Genre: A fun mix of the two actually, Bookverse and Movieverse, Calcifer Is a Good Bro, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, Gen, Howl Being a Drama Queen, Howl is a Slitherer-outer, Long-Suffering Sophie, Magical Accidents, Post-Book, Post-Movie, Slice of Life, Suspicious Sophie, Wizards being wizards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 17:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5257982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonyKat/pseuds/MoonyKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sophie has been hearing weird things in the night and Howl has been acting strange, well stranger than usual for a wizard as dramatic as Howl. What could Howl be up to? Something that could get himself cursed, perhaps? Or could it be something so bad Sophie would actually curse him herself?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which Sophie Hears Something Strange

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on ff.net, but now re-edited!

Nothing. Not a thing. She must have been imagining it. Howl's various trinkets and bobbles made whirring sounds in the dark, but she paid no mind to them. She'd grown used to the constant noise after a week or so of sleeping in Howl's room. Nights in the moving castle never ceased to amaze her, even now after a year and a half of living in said castle. In fact, simply being next to Howl as he snored gently beside her, newly colored locks in adorable disarray (not that she would ever, ever tell him she found him adorable) was enough to make her heart flutter in her chest and a silly grin steal across her face. 

And Howl was indeed in the bed beside her, which was an often enough occurrence, despite his rather disdainful opinion on keeping semi-regular hours, and really anything to do with order and being held to anything in general. He spent less nights out than before Sophie had come to stay, or so both Michael and Calcifer told her, sly little grins on their faces. But Sophie was quite pragmatic, and apart from the occasional heated argument about Howl flirting his way into mischief, she was quite understanding of Howl's need to exercise his right to slither out of at least something every once in a while. If that just happened to be getting a full night's sleep, then at least Sophie wouldn't have to listen to both the whizzing whir and tinkling of his many gizmos and his thunderous snores. 

She rolled back over, only mildly discontented at the thought. Thankfully she'd talked Howl's silk sleeping mask into encouraging softer snoring. And well, she'd known what she was getting into when she agreed to stay with him, hadn't she? Mischief and slither-outering, was par for the course rather. 

SCRATCH SCRATCH!

And just as she was nodding off! Sophie huffed and tugged her thin pillow down over her head, wishing fervently for those strange inner-ear contraptions that Howl had bought home several weeks ago. They'd had the strangest little rectangular device on the other end and it had played music right into her ears. But Howl had gotten fed up when she started listening more and more to the little music box and less and less to his dramatic complaints. Sophie scowled into the pillow and dared to peek out to see if Howl was awake enough for her to clobber him. On the other side of the bed Howl only snorted and snuggled deeper into his soft, silken mound of pillows. 

But then she could hear Michael's own clipped snores from down the hall and she relaxed again. At least Michael isn't out getting pushed around by Howl's ego tonight, Sophie thought muzzily. Perhaps it was just Calcifer then, bored and too lazy to venture out so early in the morning, and deciding to put up a bit of a fuss until someone woke up to give him breakfast. Or maybe it was the dog scritch-scratching on the nearest hard surface and doing a bit of fussing of his own. Well, whatever it was that had re-awoken her, Howl and Calcifer together were more than enough to keep anything out. After all, slitherer-outers were very good at keeping things at bay Sophie had learned. 

Sophie sighed gustily just to see Howl's hair lift and fall back over his eyes in a gentle little sursurus of sound. Her eyelids were just so heavy.... SCRITCH-SCRATCH! 

Sophie jumped, looking around the room for the source of the sound. It had sounded so close that time... She turned to Howl, debating whether to shake him awake or not. Howl had looked so very tired when he'd come home, faint bluish-purple bruises under his eyes and his habitually long, elegant sleeves trailing the dusty floor. She just didn't have the heart to wake him. And so, with grim determination, she slipped out of the bed and nimbly stepped around the various automatons littering the floor. It seemed that no matter how many times she put them away and berated the box she'd found to put them all in, they always seemed to end up back on the floor and spinning merrily overhead. Because of this she'd memorized the clearest path in case of an emergency. Certainly Howl could just pick her up and carry her out, but she much preferred relying on her own newly-rejuvenated mind and body. 

Reaching the door, she opened it a fraction of an inch, almost completely sure she'd find some hideous monster made of all the green ooze Howl always seemed to produce when in a strop. But she could see nothing but darkness, and the only light she could see was from the fireplace where Calcifer flickered softly in slumber. Looking up at the ceiling and down at her feet, she wondered if maybe her time as an old woman had somehow made her senses a bit off. And there was nothing out of place, nothing to suggest that anyone else had heard what she'd heard at all. 

Frowning, Sophie made her way quietly back to bed. Perhaps she had only imagined it? She knew enough to know that on the brink of deep sleep, hearing sounds, and even seeing things were not unheard of. She dearly hoped that was all. She flipped back the covers, heaved an annoyed sigh tinged with self-reproach and pushed her face into her pillow. In the morning she would see about those funny noises. But just then all she wanted was to sleep.


	2. In Which Breakfast is Cooked and Howl is a Morning Person

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After hearing strange scratching sounds the night before, Sophie and the entire household is on edge. What could possibly be going on?

Howl woke up, feeling hot but very comfortable. The first thing he saw when he managed to crack one eye open was a mass of fine ginger hair. The strands of which were tickling his eyelids and filling his mouth. He laughed through a content yawn. Sophie was turned on her side away from him breathing very deeply. This barely elicited the shock he might have felt a few days ago. Sophie was usually up before him cooking breakfast or cleaning up after Michael and Heen, but since her recent swap of sleeping arrangements, she usually seemed quite content to sleep in.

He was compelled to roll her over and kiss her but decided against it when he heard a small yelp from the main room. He sighed in mild irritation and rolled out of bed. Michael was probably running around the potions again, with little Heen wobbling and crawling after him. Sophie would need her sleep before dealing with them, he thought. Besides, she was very cute when she was buried under his blankets. The sharp contrast of colors made her hair fairly glow around her. He tucked her unkept hair behind her ears and turned her head slightly so her face wasn't hidden beneath her pillow. There, now he could see her clearly.

He kissed her gently on her nose, smiled a little soppily when she scowled in her sleep, and left to go and start breakfast. And then maybe she would be so happy and content with Howl that she wouldn't go see Turnip Head. Howl knew that was not going to happen, but it was certainly worth a try; Howl was hopeful by nature, but also very selfish and very cowardly. If he could passively compel Sophie to staying there with him, then he would certainly give it a go. 

Whistling softly under his breath and jogging jauntily downstairs, he was met with two very strange things. The first was Michael, who was whispering earnestly to Calcifer, an angry expression on his round face. And Calcifer who, Howl saw, was looking particularly surly.

"So you can't even greet me with a simple 'Good morning, Howl'? I am wounded, Calcifer." Howl made a dramatic gesture before ducking instinctively as Calcifer used his new-found strength to chuck a nearby bowl at his head. This was starting to become quite frequent, Howl mused. Well at least it wasn't Sophie hitting him with food containers. She had quite an arm, and with magic on her side, she could bewitch the pans to keep hitting him until he apologized. Of course he could stop it quite easily, but he wouldn't deny her the pleasure of doing magic on her own. He sacrificed so much for her happiness....

\-----

Sophie awoke to someone humming downstairs. Calcifer? Michael? Howl? She listened closely, a smile stretching her lips. Yes, it was Howl. But why was he so happy? Chances were he had already had his moment of hysterical drama and he was eating something. Sophie was usually up before him and cooking breakfast. For Howl to be up before her and humming as though he hadn't done his usual routine of bathing for 2 hours, complaining about being ignored, complaining about the breakfast, complaining about Sophie not caring enough about him to stay with him in bed, then sulking for the rest of the morning. Being cheery this early was so out of character for Howl that Sophie's smile faded away quite quickly. 

Stumbling out of bed, she made her way downstairs, red gold hair wildly flying and the hem of her nightgown clutched tightly in one white fist.

"Sophie! Darling!" Howl gushed and went to hug her. Sophie frowned at his happy expression as he crushed her to him. Suspicion and curiosity filled her. What could make Howl so happy that he would forget to sulk? And what could it mean for her? 

"What's wrong?" she asked skeptically. 

Howl made a face. "Does something have to be wrong for me to happily greet my sweetheart when she wakes?" Now that was laying it on pretty thick! Oh bother, something must be wrong. She sighed just a tad gustily, impatience almost overcoming her curiosity altogether.

"Howl, must you make everything so dramatic? I'm only worried that you're up so early and so happy about it!" Sophie leaned back in Howl's embrace to stare at his face. "I've never seen you this way."

Howl only smiled again, green eyes sparkling with mischief. So he was up to something! That might explain the sour faces on Michael and Calcifer, and perhaps even those strange scratching noises.... Though living in a wizard's home always meant a surprise or two, and almost every day at that, Howl usually fessed up easily enough after she sabotaged one or two fine suits, and both Michael and Calcifer were absolutely terrible liars, except when bound by magical contracts of course (in Calcifer's case of course, she shuddered to think of poor Michael in a magical contract). 

"Sophie, dearest, is something the matter?" She shook her head rather quickly, possibly too quickly for Howl's liking for he looked at her a tad suspiciously, let her go, and returned to making breakfast. 

His eyes always sparkled but maybe they weren't with mischief. Hm, she would have to think about it later. The bacon was starting to smell very good.

But before she could even look over Howl's shoulder to look at how breakfast was coming along, Michael stopped her in her tracks. His voice sounded just a little high which usually meant that he was stressed and quickly approaching his limit. "Sophie, you didn't hear any strange sounds last night did you? Calcifer says I'm losing it, and Howl won't talk to me because I didn't say good morning to him!" Sophie ignored the parts about Calcifer and Howl, and thought about the strange noises. Poor Michael must have heard them too! 

"As a matter of fact, I did. I thought it might have been Heen, or even Calcifer, running about." Calcifer humphed even as he gobbled up some bacon pieces. Howl just looked thoughtful and Michael looked just as bewildered as Sophie. She'd expected Howl to laugh at their naivete and explain the matter in such a simple manner that they would all feel foolish for thinking it was anything serious, but instead he only hummed lowly to himself and flipped some sausages over. The nerve! 

Well then. Either it was so unimportant that Howl didn't feel the need to brag about it, or, alternatively, it was so serious that he was doing everything to distance himself from it, even going so far as to feign complete and total ignorance. She stared hard at Howl's back, all but bursting with curiosity. There would definitely be a discussion after breakfast. That little slitherer-outer wouldn't get out of this one.


End file.
